Last Son of Antilla
by MadnessJones
Summary: G1. Wheelie was just a sparkling when the cosmic rust hit his planet and he lost everything. Now he is stranded on a hostile planet with Sharkticons and evil judges. How will such a young Autobot survive? Oneshot. No pairings.


_Author's Notes: This oneshot happened because I watched the G1 episode "Cosmic Rust" and realized the doomed civilization, the Antillans, spoke in rhyme. From there I came up with the idea for this emotional oneshot starring one of my least favorite characters. Oh plot bunnies, why do you hate me? Anyway, I hope you enjoy this oneshot. I promise I didn't make Wheelie look like a doofus despite how annoying I find him in the show :)_

* * *

 **Last Son of Antilla**

Cosmic rust. It was a condition that only recently had a name. Most Cybertronians didn't even know any kind of sickness could affect them until this dreaded plague had surfaced. It was a virus that caused the plating and internals to rust and fall away within an orn, and was an incredibly painful way to die.

Of course, Cybertron itself had not been affected, and most of the Cybertronian owned territories believed it could never happen to them. One planet, however, would find out the hard way that they were wrong.

The pleasure cruise ship Cruel Jewel had traveled from Antilla to Cybertron and was heading back to its home port. Antilla was a planet that was technically ruled by the Autobot high council on Cybertron, but was so far away from any other life-sustaining planets that the citizens of that world were mostly left to their own devices. They had their own customs, their own language, and their own problems to worry about without being concerned with whatever Cybertron was up to.

Three of those citizens were Fender, his bondmate Cursor, and their sparkling son Wheelie. They were three of the passengers of the Cruel Jewel, and they had no idea of the danger that was about to befall them and their planet.

Wheelie ran up and down the aisle of the buffet deck where all sorts of flavored energon samples were being served. He giggled in glee as he weaved around the legs of the bigger 'Bots and waved his slingshot around like a lunatic. His mother grabbed him, and he pouted at her for ruining his fun.

"Sorry hon, mustn't run," Wheelie's mother admonished him gently.

One odd quirk of the citizens of Antilla was that their language translated into a form of Cybertronian that rhymed. Many poets came from Antilla, and many artists as well. It was considered a world of culture and home to many friendly mechs and femmes.

"I want to roam, and then go back home!" Wheelie complained.

His mother just patted his shoulder guard and led him to a table. He sat down, but all he wanted to do was run. The ship was too small, and he was tired of being cooped up with little to do. As far as he was concerned, these cruises were for old 'Bots. He was lively and wanted excitement!

"Attention attention, I do need to mention, something is going on, a message from Cybertron," An announcer's voice came over the loudspeakers, "Word from Antilla and it is not good, cosmic rust has plagued our neighborhood! Our planet has been ravaged by cosmic rust! Our citizens are all turning to dust! Our ship must remain here in outer space. We cannot go home, we must find a new place."

Cursor gasped and hugged Wheelie tight. He was young and didn't entirely understand why his mother was upset, but her being upset was reason enough for him to be upset. If she was scared, then something was really wrong!

Fender ran up to his family and embraced them both. He looked as worried as his bondmate, but there was nothing they could do. They might've lost their home on Antilla, but they had been spared a horrible fate nonetheless.

"We must be strong, for the journey is long," Fender said gravely to his family, "We will be alright, we won't catch the blight. We will find a new home, the far reaches we will comb, until we have found, a place that is sound.

Cursor cried into her bondmate's armor, but she knew he was right. They had to be strong for their son. Wheelie was just a vorn old, and he didn't have the experience needed to understand what was happening to them. If they just pulled themselves together, then they could make this like a fun adventure for the sparkling. They would be alright.

* * *

Wheelie awoke with a massive helmache and the first thing he noticed was how dark it was. He tried to remember what had happened. He remembered the loudspeaker guy announcing they would have to go somewhere else...

Oh yeah. He remembered the planet they were going to land on. It was covered with robotic wildlife, corkscrew buildings, and lots of different colors of liquid ponds and oceans. It was strange and beautiful, and that was just from what he could see from the window in his family's cabin.

Oh, his family. Now he remembered. The ship had crashed after someone or something fired upon them. His family had screamed, and then Wheelie banged his helm and passed out. Wheelie was in the dark now because the ship had lost power. He had to get out and find his family!

Wheelie felt around until he felt the door. He walked slowly down the halls and tripped several times. He felt warm surging liquid on his arm; not realizing it was his own energon seeping out through a gash.

After crawling for what felt like an eternity the sparkling found the escape hatch and forced his way outside. When he got out there, all he saw was red leaves, sandy dirt, and a sky that seemed to remain in eternal dusk.

Wheelie had his slingshot, some energon goodies, and some energy pellets in his subspace, but nothing else. He walked away from the ship in search of another Antillan, but he didn't find anyone. He didn't know what else to do, so he decided to search for one of those corkscrew buildings. Maybe someone would help him. Maybe they would shoot him. That thought scared him, but it wasn't as scary as being alone. Ever since Wheelie could remember he had always been afraid of being by himself.

Wheelie walked for almost a joor before he found a large corkscrew building that twisted and curved like a petrified tornado. It was big, even by Cybertronian standards. The planet Antilla never had anything so grand, nor anything so sparse. Despite the shape, this building seemed cold and without a sense of creativity. Wheelie shook away the thought and went inside to try to find someone to talk to.

"Got to find a friend, or this scrap will never end," Wheelie muttered to himself, and then silently reprimanded himself for mildly cursing.

The little orange sparkling walked down the halls for a while until he finally heard the faint sound of someone screaming. His processor told him to run away from the terrifying noise, but his spark said danger was better than eternal loneliness, so he ran toward the noise.

He peeked inside the doorway to see a large steel room with most of the floor missing. One of the cruisers was tied up and standing over the hole in the middle of the floor, and there were round robotic brutes along with a strange tentacled creature floating above a stairway looking down at the unfortunate Antillan.

"Guilty or innocent?" The creature asked itself, "Innocent," It replied after turning itself around to reveal another face.

" _No_! _Please_!" The Antillan begged miserably.

"Why so sad? That's not bad," Wheelie muttered; confused by the strange behavior.

His question was answered in the worst way possible when the plank was removed and the Antillan mech fell into what turned out to be a giant pool. Wheelie heard the screaming, and the sound of something eating in a frenzied fashion! He saw bits of metal flung up to the surface and figured out what happened. That floating thing just fed the passenger to something in the pool!

Wheelie screamed despite himself when he saw what happened, and this caught the attention of the floating magistrate.

"Guards! Seize the prisoner!" It commanded, and the brutes gave chase.

Wheelie ran for his young life, and the big sharp-toothed fiends ran after him. Wheelie made it out of the palace, but tripped on a rock outside! The monsters got close, but then he used his sling shot to fire an energy pellet in the closest monster's optics! It was stunned just long enough for Wheelie to transform and drive away into the forest. The monsters followed his tracks, and he noticed that driving wouldn't be enough to get away. Not only could they see his tire tracks, but also his dripping energon from the wound!

Wheelie transformed back into robot mode and jumped up into a tree. He jumped from branch to branch and hoped he was fast enough to elude his pursuers. Fortunately, the things chasing Wheelie were stupid, and eventually gave up the chase when they could no longer track him. Wheelie didn't stop running though. In fact he would run for a long, _long_ time.

* * *

As the vorns passed Wheelie became more familiar with his environment. He knew which lakes yielded energon, he knew where Quintesson strongholds were and how to avoid them, and he taught himself to not only make projectiles out of energon crystals and rocks but also to aim with focused precision.

He also learned that the monsters were called Sharkticons, the evil judges were called Quintessons, and that none of these things could be trusted. He also learned how to live alone, as he no longer had a choice in the matter.

Time moved on, but Wheelie didn't. He lived for many vorns, but he never got older or upgraded. Despite the vorns passing, to the point where Wheelie should have been an adult, he seemed forever stuck in the childish state he was left in when the Cruel Jewel crashed.

One would think having all that time to himself would make Wheelie introspective, but instead the opposite happened. He kept himself busy climbing trees and mountains, making new things to use in his slingshot, and building temporary shelters for when the acid rains would hit. Just like Cybertron, this planet had an overabundance of acid. Antilla never had such weather, but Wheelie adapted just as he adapted to everything else. Wheelie didn't have time to ponder these changes because he kept himself busy.

It was on an evening with clear skies that Wheelie found himself scouting for a place to set up shelter. He was feeling daring, so he took a path that was parallel to one of the many roads the Quintessons set up with traps to ensnare and kill intruders. Wheelie didn't know why the Quints thought anyone wanted to come here, but whatever kept them busy and away from him was a good thing, he thought.

He was gathering some thin steel branches to use for his hut when he heard someone on the road. The voices sounded gruff, and the words sounded basic, so Wheelie thought it was a group of Sharkticons. He ducked behind a large rock and watched to see what happened. Much to his surprise, it wasn't Sharkticons, but rather an entirely new type of creature!

Wheelie had never seen such strange looking robots before. They almost looked like Cybertronians, but their features were too savage, too reptilian. The red Autobot sigils they wore though told Wheelie something very important; they were indeed on the same side as him! This was incredible! New friends!

When he looked again though, he gasped. One of them had nearly stepped into a pit of spikes designed to flip over and crush a robot to bits! It was the robot with the biggest teeth that nearly fell, and he was pulled back at the last second by the big-horned one. They were still arguing. Wheelie decided he needed to warn these new mechs about the danger before they became Sharkticon chow, but vorns without company made Wheelie's social skills...limited.

""Friends find! Look behind!" Wheelie announced himself to his new friends as he climbed the rock.

"Who say that?" The big-toothed one asked as he turned around.

Wheelie was so happy! They were talking to him! He leapt off the rock and ran up the back of the long-necked Autobot as if it were a flight of stairs. He nimbly sat down on the large Bot's tiny head and gave the sharp-tooth one, their leader he assumed, a clever grin.

"Friend find look behind," Wheelie repeated before adding, "You go wrong way. You fool I say."

"Me Grimlock _fool_?" The sharp-tooth Bot, Grimlock, asked in an affronted tone of voice.

"Pity you got, no fool you not," Wheelie laughed cheekily; looking smug as he imparted his self-declared wisdom on the ignorant tourists.

"Me Grimlock no like you!" Grimlock shouted indignantly as he swatted Wheelie off his brother's nose and sent the little orange Bot falling to the ground.

Wheelie was afraid now. The new creature had attacked him! What if it wanted to turn him over to the Quintessons? What if it stomped on him or ate him? He didn't know what Grimlock was, but he was starting to figure out this was someone he shouldn't have messed with.

Not wanting to be killed by the hulking beast, Wheelie took out his trusty slingshot and fired an energy pellet right at Grimlock's muzzle! What happened next surprised Wheelie. Grimlock rubbed his sore nose and exclaimed "Ow! Why boy hit my nose?"

Wheelie figured out these guys weren't as monstrous as they first appeared, so he went back to his usual playful self.

"Wheelie say find friends today," The little Autobot said with a smile and started walking along the dangerous path to guide them.

"Me Grimlock say we on our way," Grimlock replied; copying Wheelie's rhyming.

Wheelie normally would've thought Grimlock was making fun of him, but the big mech didn't seem like the sort that would do that. He wore his spark on his chassis, which reminded Wheelie of himself a bit.

"I'm brave and I'm steely, designation is Wheelie," Wheelie introduced himself as they walked toward the Quintesson hall of justice, "Now you do the same, tell me your name."

"Do we have to rhyme too?" The winged one asked.

"Me Grimlock," Grimlock introduced himself needlessly, "Me am king of the Dinobots. These am Dinobots." Grimlock gestured to the others in the group.

Grimlock then grabbed Wheelie, something that scared the little Antillan at first, but then he sighed in relief as Grimlock simply deposited Wheelie on his back so he could ride instead of walk.

"Me am Slag, and me best fighter!" The long-horned mech informed him.

"Me Swoop," The winged one added.

"Me Sludge," The longneck said.

"Me Snarl, and me tired," The plate-backed one sighed.

"No complaining! We need find Hot Rod and Kup!" Grimlock snapped at Snarl.

"You don't say. Who are they?" Wheelie asked.

"Hot Rod am fun Autobot," Grimlock replied fondly, "Even if he a bit bossy. Kup am coolest Autobot. He tell great stories. Me Grimlock still haven't heard the ending of the petro-rabbit story. You Wheelie have any good stories?"

"Um...Me Wheelie remember one, it a story of times long gone," Wheelie replied after a moment of thought, "One day in a beautiful land, there was a castle surrounded by sand. The sand grew and grew until it covered the sky, it covered the floors and got in the king's eye. Then a vacuum-former came and swept up the sand, but unfortunately he sucked up the land. The planet was gone; the vacuum was alone. Kind of like me after I left home."

Wheelie stopped talking after that, truly sad for the first time in a long while. Most of the time he only thought of Antilla when comparing the weather or the architecture, but now that he was relatively safe he started to think about everything he had lost. His family had been dead for vorns now, and cosmic rust destroyed the population of Antilla. It had never hit Wheelie before, but he was probably the last of his kind.

* * *

The Dinobots made quick work of the doors blocking their way to the judgment room. Wheelie knew if their friends had been captured that they would eventually end up in this mock courtroom. Wheelie was afraid to go in there again, but then he saw how easily the Dinobots rammed through obstacles. It was a sight to behold.

Wheelie was beginning to believe Grimlock when he said he was a king. He wondered how many Dinobots existed, and what planet they came from. He thought visiting the Dinobot home world would be so cool. After all, he was now personal friends with their king. Hm, he wondered if the Dinobots ever called him Grimlock Prime…

The Dinobots knocked down the door leading to the judgment room, and Slag actually paused to apologize to the Quintesson guard they crushed. Wheelie was still nervous, but he felt safer with these noble warriors around to protect him.

"Me Grimlock want to munch metal!" Grimlock bellowed when he saw that his friends were being attacked by savage enemies.

Grimlock found a group of Sharkticons and crushed them under his pede! It was as easy to Grimlock as squashing bugs. Wheelie took out his slingshot and shot a Sharkticon from his place on Grimlock's back. He was feeling good, until it started to charge at them. He worried this would be the end, but Grimlock roared in its face, and the Sharkticon ran away like a scared retro rat! It was cathartic to attack the ones that had taken so much from him, so Wheelie hopped down so he could join the fight properly.

One of the Autobots, the red and yellow one, remarked to his companion "I never thought I'd be so happy to see those big bozos."

"Me Grimlock no bozo! Me king!" Grimlock corrected irritably.

Wheelie then saw the Quintesson change its face to its most skeletal form, and he grew fearful again, since this was the face it made before issuing an order of execution.

"Sharkticons, execute them!" Yep, Wheelie knew it.

The Sharkticons transformed, ready to obey the command of their master, when Grimlock roared a loud beastly roar and stomped his pede hard on the ground! The Sharkticons immediately stopped in their tracks, unwilling to attack such a fearsome foe.

"Me Grimlock say execute them!" Grimlock ordered as he pointed to the Quintesson.

The Sharkticons, if they were capable of such emotion, almost looked happy to follow the order. Wheelie would almost swear they looked liberated as they piled onto one another to reach the Quintesson judge and deliver a _judgment_ of their own.

"I think the problems on this planet will be solved very shortly," The old pale green Autobot said to his friends.

"Yeah, but what about our problem?" The red one replied frustratedly, "We need a ship."

A ship! That's right! Wheelie had known about the Quintesson's ship for a while now, but he could never get past the Sharkticons to get to it. Besides, he didn't know how to fly a ship. Now though, there were friends to fly the ship! It was perfect!

"You get ship if I get trip," Wheelie proposed with the demeanor of one who knows their services are needed.

"Who are you?" The red Autobot asked him.

"Him Wheelie," Grimlock introduced them as he lifted Wheelie up with his nose, "Him friend."

"He'll be mine too if he can find a ship," The red Bot replied cynically.

"Give stare, over there!" Wheelie exclaimed as he gestured to a swirling corkscrew that looked like every other swirling corkscrew but was actually a spacefaring vessel.

" _That's_ a ship?" The pale green Autobot balked.

"Who cares? As long as it flies," The red Autobot replied indifferently.

The team then went inside the ship so they could get off the planet. Wheelie had lived on this hostile Quintesson controlled planet most of his life. It felt strange to leave it. As he rode on Grimlock's nose and hugged himself close to the Dinobot he couldn't really regret the decision to leave. He felt safe for the first time he could remember since his parents died, and he had friends for the first time in his life.

 **The End**


End file.
